Life before the Internet

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

I don't know how we got from internet to porn, but I guess they both go hand in hand.

I can't recall the specifics off the top of my head, but I've read multiple articles which explain that, without porn, there might not even BE an internet.
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I think 1997 was my first experience with the internet; my high school had just recently gotten internet-enabled and gotten a new computer lab. I hurt my neck and had to sit out gym class for a few weeks, so they put me in a Study Hall in the library where I mostly just did searches on girls I had a crush on.

A couple years later I took Journalism; that class was set up in the computer lab and so we spent a lot of time online doing research for our articles. I was always done with my assignments early, so I spent most of my class time looking at wrestling rumors on LordsOfPain.net and Rantsylvania.com and stuff like that. The kid sitting next to me was ballsier than me, though, and he would spend all his time figuring out which porn sites hadn't been blocked by the school yet. I'd have to keep watch and give him a nudge if the teacher was walking around nearby. Far as I know he never got caught but I'm sure he f*cked up some of the school's computers along the way.

I didn't have a computer at home until I graduated; as I've mentioned, we didn't have much money at that time so I was basically gifted an older computer someone had donated to the school. Once I got it set up, I picked up where I'd left off looking up wrestling stuff (and girls ), and then I got curious to see what else was out there, and that's when I started looking up stuff I liked as a kid like TMNT, MOTU, Ghostbusters, stuff like that. I spent most of the time on AIM back then, though.

That computer only lasted a couple of months. When it died and I had someone take a look at it, they were like "Honestly I'm surprised that this thing could even handle the internet, given how old it is." Luckily by then I was working and had money so I bought a brand new one. Unfortunately, I got a nasty porn virus a couple years later and that killed that one. Longtime forum members may recall that I more or less vanished from like 2005 until 2009, then again until 2012 or so. That first gap was when my computer was trashed, and I didn't have the means to get another one at that point in time.

But yeah, those were my earliest internet experiences: Wrestling, 80s nostalgia, and porn.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I can't recall the specifics off the top of my head, but I've read multiple articles which explain that, without porn, there might not even BE an internet.
--------------

I think 1997 was my first experience with the internet; my high school had just recently gotten internet-enabled and gotten a new computer lab. I hurt my neck and had to sit out gym class for a few weeks, so they put me in a Study Hall in the library where I mostly just did searches on girls I had a crush on.

A couple years later I took Journalism; that class was set up in the computer lab and so we spent a lot of time online doing research for our articles. I was always done with my assignments early, so I spent most of my class time looking at wrestling rumors on LordsOfPain.net and Rantsylvania.com and stuff like that. The kid sitting next to me was ballsier than me, though, and he would spend all his time figuring out which porn sites hadn't been blocked by the school yet. I'd have to keep watch and give him a nudge if the teacher was walking around nearby. Far as I know he never got caught but I'm sure he f*cked up some of the school's computers along the way.

I didn't have a computer at home until I graduated; as I've mentioned, we didn't have much money at that time so I was basically gifted an older computer someone had donated to the school. Once I got it set up, I picked up where I'd left off looking up wrestling stuff (and girls ), and then I got curious to see what else was out there, and that's when I started looking up stuff I liked as a kid like TMNT, MOTU, Ghostbusters, stuff like that. I spent most of the time on AIM back then, though.

That computer only lasted a couple of months. When it died and I had someone take a look at it, they were like "Honestly I'm surprised that this thing could even handle the internet, given how old it is." Luckily by then I was working and had money so I bought a brand new one. Unfortunately, I got a nasty porn virus a couple years later and that killed that one. Longtime forum members may recall that I more or less vanished from like 2005 until 2009, then again until 2012 or so. That first gap was when my computer was trashed, and I didn't have the means to get another one at that point in time.

But yeah, those were my earliest internet experiences: Wrestling, 80s nostalgia, and porn.

Come to think of it, I remember back in like 92 or 93 someone in high school once brought a printed out page of the Peanuts gang 'getting busy'. It was 4th wall breaking. Charlie Brown was trying to get the gang together to play baseball, but Lucy got pissed and would have none of it. She complained they were around since World War 2 and were still kids and they were never gonna laid. So everyone breaks out into an orgy.

And before anyone gets on my case, no the porn wasn't 'hot' or anything, given they were kids. I think the joke more lied in the fact that it was odd to see the characters act that way, let alone acknowledge the fact of how long they existed in real time.

The thing about cartoon porn IMO, is either it's hot or it's funny. It's hot when it's like... Jessica Rabbit showing off the goods, but seeing like.. Popeye bang Olive is more funny than hot. Like no one wants to see those two naked, it's just 'funny' or 'shocking' to see the characters do that.

Now back then the most I was thinking about was 'dude, you better hide that before we all get in trouble'. But now looking back I wonder where the hell he got that. I know we had computer classes in the high school, but I never got assigned to one and this woulda been during the DOS days, and I've heard of Tijuana Bibles, but I thought they were small little books, this was a regular-sized piece of paper. So I am very confused where the dude got that from? This was years and years before I heard of anime, let alone hentai.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by sdp

I remember BBS's, I hated them, looking back they are just an early form of what forums became but man they were so clunky to use they were nearly worthless. But that would still be the "internet" though, I guess what you wanted to say is that before the "world wide web". Though you might be thinking of something different if it was from the late 80s and early 90s when the internet was still in its infancy but that was before my time when I was a toddler.

I was barely 8 at the end of the 80s, I wasn't worried about using any modems yet. I suspect I was dialing into BBSes around 1992-1993, with the WWW becoming "available" to me around 1996.

[Prowler]

The Internet is a lot more practical, faster and easier to navigate nowadays, but I do miss how, two decades ago, the Internet was a lot less centralised and truly felt like you were surfing on a massive ocean. Fansites were everywhere and not everyone was on the same websites as they are nowadays. As bad as many of those geocities web pages were, they had a lot of heart poured into them. Someone actually took time to put them together to show their love for their favourite video game or anime. Nowadays no one creates personal websites or pages anymore. They just open an account on twitter or Instagram to post a few photos and engage in discussion about their favourite subjects with other like minded people.

[Leo656]

Yeah, websites were "rough" but the dedication some individuals showed in putting their pages together was very impressive. I remember my Evil Dead fanaticism was just starting at that time, and I was supremely impressed with some of the extensive fan-made websites about those movies. Like usually the fansites were a lot more elaborate than the "official" ones for some things. Like a lot of movies or franchises didn't have "official" websites for them yet, and if they did they'd have a few screen grabs, maybe a Midi of some music or something. But the fan pages would go all-out with tons of pictures and trivia and sometimes even short clips.

I'll never forget the first time I came across he-man.org and was just blown away by how much work someone had put into it, considering the franchise had been "dead" since like 1988 by that point.

[Sumac]

Can't say for everyone, but in Russia "Interntization" was a long and slow process. Even in Moscow connections were more often than not horrible and unstable, operators constantly dying and merging and remerging and whatnot. I think, Internet has become normal thing in Russia around beginning of the 00s, up until than it were only random nerds and rich people who had access to such stuff.

As for me, Prior to Internet it was all about TV and later Radio for me.
I was into the video games and foreign action movies and cartoons back in the 90s and my only source of information about them were TV programs, which were irregular and often discontinued. Sure, there were magazines, but they were rife with misinformation and unchecked rumors and my parents preferred to buy old school Soviet-type newspapers with gossip about stars and rumors about "giant rats living in a Moscow subway" and they were not really useful as a source of information for my hobbies.

************

My first encounter with Internet was in 2003 via Internet club in the local Library (same thing as Internet cafe). My first time in Internet was kind of puzzling as I couldn't find anything about Ninja Turtles and Mortal Kombat, but found sites with naked women, which I didn't want to watch in the public cafe.

Later I've figured out how to use it properly and found what I wanted, including various fan-sites about Mortal Kombat (most of them are dead nowadays) and NinaTurtles.com and this very Technodrome forums. Like always with a new things I encounter, I've grown somewhat addicted to Internet: I loved that I could get any information just few clicks of the buttons from my hobbies to completely random stuff.

Eventually, due to financial difficulties I could not no longer visit Internet club and I've got Internet at home only in 2006, when era of Wild West in Internet was ending. Still, it was amazing: information about video games, movies and, well, yes, porn, here and now. TV and radio were something for the old school nostalgia or just something of a convenience, when I didn't had access to the Internet.

***************

On one hand, it is nice to have access to everything I want right here and right now. On the other, there was a certain thrill, when you saw your favorite movie listed in the TV program for the next week and you spent the whole week waiting for it. Or waiting for your favorite program.

I must admit, that I am still prefer to wait for the movies, which I want to watch, to be broadcasted on TV, with few exceptions, like movies that are too recent to be broadcasted or TV series, which are not broadcasted anywhere.

Sometimes I just like to turn on my old Soviet Radio, just to feel like it was before...just to look into monitor and watch some streamers and play Counter-Strike, LOL.

****************

On topic of fan-sites, they were amazing. Sadly most of them are dead this days and their creators either lost interest or moved into social networks, which I don't want to deal with.

[Coola Yagami]

That's another thing. I guess you can say I was heavily addicted to the internet in the 2000s, but nowadays it's kinda hard to say. Maybe not so much on a computer or laptop, but like literally everyone is on their phones 24/7 anymore. Everyone is on social media 24/7 anymore. People legit lose their **** when Youtube or the Playstation Network go down for like... 10 minutes. I remember people flipping out all over Gamefaqs and bitching about Sony and whatever and I'm like ......you can survive an hour without gaming you know....?

[Wildcat]

We got our first computer and internet I think in 2000. Could have been 1999. So I don’t remember the really early internet. By then proper sites and stores were established.

I looked up pretty much everything but mostly video games. Especially since the Dreamcast was new at the time. I loved going on Newgrounds and playing flash games and watching animations.

I got my own computer in 2006 and learned the technical side of things and how to do stuff like downloading and using programs. I managed to fix every virus it had by joining tech support boards.

It broke in 2011 and have only used tablets and a Chromebook since then. I’m not against full computers. I’d like one but it’s been so long I hate having to worry about viruses again.

As for porn before the internet it was just late night HBO and Cinemax. Never sought out magazines or videos from anyone. Aside from being embarrassed I would not want “used” material

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Leo656

80s nostalgia.

I recall this website:

http://www.inthe80s.com/

As of September 2021, it is still around.

[Wesley]

I was born in 1986. First time I used the Internet was in school around 1998 when I was a pre-teen. Prior to that, I went on trips, played videogames, watched tv, read comics/magazines and played with toys.

[frank_one]

Talking about internet and how it changed through the years...
Is there still someone here visiting this forum using a pc? These days I browse the web almost only on the phone and I use the pc for everything else. Sometimes if I need to search something I grab my phone even if I'm at the desk in front of my pc.

[newfan]

Originally Posted by frank_one

Talking about internet and how it changed through the years...
Is there still someone here visiting this forum using a pc? These days I browse the web almost only on the phone and I use the pc for everything else. Sometimes if I need to search something I grab my phone even if I'm at the desk in front of my pc.

Well, laptop... I prefer to have a keyboard for typing rather than tap on a screen. Also prefer a bigger screen.

[Andrew NDB]

Oddly one of my first clear memories of the actual WWW is like... the first press releases about NT:TNM off ninjaturtles.com. Stuff that probably hasn't aged well. "It's gonna be so dark and gritty! These are way older Turtles!" and so on.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by frank_one

Talking about internet and how it changed through the years...
Is there still someone here visiting this forum using a pc? These days I browse the web almost only on the phone and I use the pc for everything else. Sometimes if I need to search something I grab my phone even if I'm at the desk in front of my pc.

I do.
I don't have laptop and generally prefer not to go to the forums from mobile devices, to protected passwords and, because, typing long stuff on a smartphone is pain in the ass.

[MrPliggins]

I visit this forum on either my desktop pc or mobile. It’s much easier to type and upload photos (at least on this forum) from a pc.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Oddly one of my first clear memories of the actual WWW is like... the first press releases about NT:TNM off ninjaturtles.com. Stuff that probably hasn't aged well. "It's gonna be so dark and gritty! These are way older Turtles!" and so on.

LOL I wonder if you fell for it back then.

If it anything it made you more jaded and wiser, so if there's ever a new show and we start hearing stuff like 'this one is dark and gritty you guys, honest!' you'll have more of a 'don't hold my breathe until I actually see it' mentality.

[The Deadman]

Originally Posted by frank_one

Talking about internet and how it changed through the years...
Is there still someone here visiting this forum using a pc? These days I browse the web almost only on the phone and I use the pc for everything else. Sometimes if I need to search something I grab my phone even if I'm at the desk in front of my pc.

I use a laptop, and my phone if I'm out and about and just wanna browse.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by frank_one

Talking about internet and how it changed through the years...
Is there still someone here visiting this forum using a pc? These days I browse the web almost only on the phone and I use the pc for everything else. Sometimes if I need to search something I grab my phone even if I'm at the desk in front of my pc.

Really? I'm using my home PC 95% of the time on the internet. Only time I use my phone is when I'm outside or at my job. I can't imagine why anyone would sit and browse the internet and type on your tiny phone screen if you're at home, it's so much easier to browse and type on a home computer.

[Prowler]

It's honestly amazing how much the world has changed with the Internet.

Do you guys even still remember the very first time you spoke to someone from the other side of the world online? Before that, you had to travel to foreign countries to interact with the locals.

Nowadays we just take it for granted and see it as something normal.

My older brother has told me about the first few times he used the Internet and spoke to people from South East Asia and Latin America online.

He told me that they all knew where Portugal was, the language that we spoke, the name of our capital city and a few other facts about our country. And this was in like 1997 or so. So WAY before Wikipedia and even Google were a thing. Clearly people using the Internet at the time were the more educated ones on average.

From what I have read and heard of people who were teenagers and adults in the 90s, people were a lot nicer on the Internet back then. It wasn't until the early 2000s when broadband became a thing and more and more people began using the Internet that the number of assholes and uneducated clowns increased exponentially.

The world definitely got more connected. But not everything has been positive from that either. Nowadays globalisation is slowly destroying the identities of many places. Europe is getting more and more americanised sadly.

Also the Internet has unlimited resources pretty much. We could all be using it to learn about important things but instead we spend our time discussing ninja turtles and looking at memes and stuff like that

[frank_one]

Originally Posted by Prowler

He told me that they all knew where Portugal was, the language that we spoke, the name of our capital city and a few other facts about our country. And this was in like 1997 or so. So WAY before Wikipedia and even Google were a thing.

Are you aware of the fact that even before internet people used to attend schools and to read books? Right?